Concerned over the immense stress that IIT-JEE puts on thousands of students, the Union HRD ministry has set up a high-level panel to modify the test pattern.
Of the 1.5 lakh aspirants every year, only 3,500 make it to the seven IITs. To tone down the gruelling test, the ministry has formed a committee with teachers from IITs and representatives of the two +2 level national boards - CBSE and ICSE.
According to sources, the first change may be to limit questions to the +2 syllabus. "The HRD ministry feels many of the IIT-JEE questions are based on topics that are not taught at the +2 stage, and are, in fact, of a far advanced standard. This forces candidates to start preparing at least three years in advance - from Class IX itself. They overload themselves and this leads to depression, which sometimes leads to suicides," IIT-Kharagpur director SK Dubey told TOI.
Dubey and IIT-JEE chairman VK Tewari are on the committee, which is expected to submit its recommendations by July. The changes could be introduced from IIT-JEE, 2006.
The government believes the tougher syllabus forces students to neglect their board examinations for IIT-JEE. They also end up spending a lot on coaching classes that claim to be tailor-made for the entrance test, said Dubey.
The committee, therefore, is singling out topics that are...
